I’ll simplify things for you, Wonderkid. Takeo was the only person who knew about Danny.
I let out a breath. Noah hummed a thoughtful sound in the back of his throat, moving back into his seat, and Cabe relaxed beside me—though only slightly. Jayden was right; that did simplify things. I only had one more question for him.
And you? Can I trust you?
His reply didn’t come until we had pulled up to Le Chateau, and it didn’t come in the form of a text message. He was standing beside the car as I slipped out after Cabe, and he was wearing his trademark smile—the one that was both playful and too-intelligent.
“We were family once,” he said, reminding me of what I had said in his house. “Maybe we could be family again.”
I nodded, pausing to examine him. “Maybe,” I said. We have a long way to go.
His smile sharpened, as though he knew my thoughts, and it felt as though he was showing me something genuine, though his expression should have been frightening. It was the real him. The real Jayden wasn’t soft and playful; he wasn’t any kind of guardian angel or responsible agent. He was a weapon—through and through. His power had consumed him every bit as much as Danny’s power had, though he could bring his humanity to the surface when he needed it.
Weston had been wrong. Taking the pairs away from the Atmás hadn’t strengthened them at all. It had only paved the way to the eventual ruination of their humanity, allowing their power complete reign. Weston’s creations were all flawed—and more than that, their very existence had destroyed him. I had burned his carefully plotted succession right from the roots, and Danny had done the rest. Danny was the most powerful of us all, and Weston hadn’t even realised it. All these years Danny had been hiding in plain sight: presenting the rarest ability, the deadliest threat against the human population. Right beneath Weston’s nose. Stalking and tormenting his other creations.
Danny was everything he had ever hoped to achieve. His greatest victory turned gravest mistake. It was so horrible that I actually felt bad for Weston.
I turned away from Jayden and followed the others through the ghostly mansion that only seemed colder and more foreign in the wake of Weston’s death. We retreated to a formal meeting room of sorts and sat ourselves in a circle of chairs, where the majority of the Klovoda was waiting—with the exception of Alice and Takeo. In the center sat a circular Persian rug, an empty space filled with questions and expectations, and something else, too.
Something that I hadn’t felt in such a long time that it was almost unrecognisable.
It was hope.
“We have a lot to discuss,” Jack began, folding one leg over another and casting his eyes about the gathered people. “So… let’s begin. Yas?”
Everyone turned to the woman sitting a few spaces from Jack. She had her eyes downcast, and I understood why when she raised her head, revealing the dark circles that marked her tanned skin and the dampness clouding the brown of her irises, hinting at a hovering grief. She cleared her throat, visibly collecting herself before speaking.
“We’ve reached a tie in the voting,” she announced. “Hardly surprising since two of our members have disappeared. So now the deciding vote is in the hands of the Voda.”
I blinked several times and turned to Quillan, but he was already looking at me, as though he had expected as much. Everyone else turned to me, and I started to shake my head.
“I’m not the Voda,” I quickly asserted.
“Weston’s dead,” Adie announced gruffly. He also seemed to be in bad shape, with his red beard appearing wilder than ever before and his eyes red-rimmed. “That makes you the new Voda.”
I shook my head again, more violently this time. “No.” My voice was strong. “No offense, but that’s ridiculous. I could go through all of the reasons why that’s ridiculous, but we’d be here all night and it won’t be anything that you all aren’t aware of. So, I’ll just cut to the point: I’m unfit. I can’t do it. Miro is the Voda. Everyone is expecting it, it’s the right thing to do. He’ll be a good leader… and I… I won’t. I can’t be, because I can’t control my power, just like Danny and Eva and Jayden.” I avoided looking at the latter as I spoke his name, but I knew that I had just said something controversial, judging by the raised brows of half the room. I continued, ignoring their reactions. “You all said you wanted a reform? Start it right now. Abolish the blood transfusion that gives the Voda power over every sworn-in Zev. It’s creepy, and it won’t work if Miro’s the Voda anyway. So get rid of it. Give people a little more freedom. End the Weston Dictatorship. Start something new. With Miro.”
“Smart girl,” Jack muttered, trying to hide a smile behind his hand as he pretended to rub his jaw.